Driven

Rating:
Summary: THE OSCAR RACE BEGINS WITH "DRIVEN!"
Review: The year's most acclaimed movie is now it's most anticipated DVD! Arguably the most realistic look at Formula One racing ever put on film, DRIVEN should have no problem driving away with the major awards catergories at the upcoming Oscars. Led by the dynamic performance of the charismatic Kip Pardue, DRIVEN offers an inside glimpse at the lives of NASCAR heroes, on the track and off. Stunning direction from Renny Harlin, and a knowing, uncompromising script by Stallone, makes this a must-see and the overwhelming favourite for Best Picture of 2001. Gentlemen, start your engines!!!

Rating:
Summary: Don't pass on this!
Review: Stallone should have directed this one, or at least edited it! The movie feels kind of choppy and even though the race scenes are exciting, it seems like we never really get to know the characters. I was surprised then to watch the extra scenes (part of the special features) and see how much was removed from the film-- stuff that did exactly what the movie should have, let us get to know the characters. There deleted scenes run almost one hour!

The director has an informative commentary track, Renny Harlin who also directed Stallone in "Cliffhanger". There are two cool documentaries that tell about the making of the movie, and how they did all the great special effects.

STACY EDWARDS really got the shaft on this movie. She plays Luc, the reporter who wants to do a story about Stallone's character, Joe Tanto. She is essentially the romantic lead, as a relationship develops between her and Tanto. Her name isn't even on the box! The deleted scenes reveal how important her role really is, many of her key scenes were left on the cutting room floor.

Rating:
Summary: Good movie, GREAT DVD
Review: This movie, as released, is a feather-weight entertainment. Light on involving drama, high on digitally-enhanced racing sequences. Nowhere near the best of Sly Stallone's career, but certainly better than most of the stuff he did in the '90s; like 'Specialist', 'Assassins', 'Judge Dredd'.

On many DVDs, the 'deleted scenes' are often of very little interest- you can usually tell why they ended up cut. That is NOT the case with "Driven". The lengthy program of deleted/extended sequences gives us an idea of what Stallone's original script was like. Character's become fleshed out, plot holes and inconsistencies are rectified. The DRAMA of the film was clearly sacrificed for MORE ACTION. Yes, the racing scenes are important to the movie, but this clearly was at one time a more emotionally involving movie.

This deleted scene selection can also be viewed with Stallone's running commentary. It is very clear from listening to Mr. Stallone discuss these cut scenes that there was a lot of thought put into the script. After watching this, it is clearly incorrect to place the blame for "Driven"'s weaknessess on Sly. The final product is a far cry from his original vision.

It is a shame that the editor was allowed to chop so much vitality out of this movie. Long ago, Stallone won an Oscar nomination for his screenplay to "Rocky". I wish the movie he actually wrote had made it to theaters. This is a great example of the DVD format allowing us a glimpse into the filmmaking process. At least Stallone was able to prove himself capable of thoughtful expression to those who doubted him.

One final thought on the extensive deleted/expanded scene segment... These scenes are presented in their 'rough form', as Stallone explains. There is no music or special effects added. The sound has yet to be properly mixed. Nevertheless, the real heart and soul of the movie can be found in these 'rough' scenes. They pack more emotional punch than all the loud music and digital effects of the final product.

Give this film a chance. Spend some time with the supplemental materials on the DVD. (There is much more than what I have described).

Rating:
Summary: Thanks to the editors for making this a 2-star film
Review: Kudos to the customer reviews that confirm what my initial reaction was when I saw the deleted scenes on the DVD.....what were the editors thinking? The deleted scenes with Stallone's commentary are excellent and confirm what Stallone insisted all along...this is a PEOPLE movie, about the relationships, with car racing as a side note. The deleted scenes comprise a little over an hour of extra footage and serve to further develop the characters that are in this movie. And what we find with the added insight into these characters is that "Driven" is not a bad movie, as the critics and moviegoers insisted, but a good movie that was poorly edited. I agree with a fellow reviewer that I found myself angry that Stallone's rather insightful movie with highly developed characters and real life situations and conflicts was hacked to pieces in the box office and condemned to mediocrity, thanks not to bad acting and poor storyline, but because some idiot in Hollywood tried to make this into a car movie and ruined it in the process.

The racing scenes are awesome in this movie and the CG work is flawless. I have not gotten a chance to watch this part of the DVD yet...saving it for another day. Sure, it's not totally realistic...in watching NASCAR, cars don't pass at will like they do in this movie, and many of the crash scenes are a bit overdone, but that's not the point. It's entertaining and fun to watch..that's what movies are supposed to be about...right?

Give this one a chance. At least go down to your local movie store, rent the DVD, and check out the deleted scenes before you make a decision on this one. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Rating:
Summary: "Dude, Where's My Car" was better
Review: Quite possibly the worst movie I have seen this year. It really was that bad. Lacking any character development, I felt no emotion towards any of the characters and considered turning it off half way through. This movie is a piece of garbage. It's got Sylvester Stallone in it and its out on dvd and it's a piece of garbage.

Rating:
Summary: So much better than you'd expect
Review: Rollicking good fun that finds Sylvester Stallone back on top of the action game in this drama about the carnivalesque world of race car driving. Sly also wrote the screenplay for this latest Renny Harlin flick, and as usual his running theme is that of humanity overcoming the need for competitive gain. Though his dialogue needs (and I mean needs) a lot of help, the relationships between characters in the film are much stronger than you would expect. Stallone plays an over-the-hill race car driver who quit years ago when it just got too tough, who finds himself back in the game when he's asked to mentor the new boy in town (Kip Pardue). Pardue has his own troubles, mostly those of trying to beat his racing nemesis (Til Schweiger) and maybe steal the guy's girlfriend (Olympic-medalist swimmer Estella Warren, who in all fairness can act quite measurably). The film really comes alive when Gina Gershon is on the scene; I honestly don't think any film should ever be made without her (watch the part when she wipes up the floor with Stacy Edwards and her mousy little face-it's my favourite!!) Harlin's directorial style steals greatly from the likes of Oliver Stone (particularly his work on Any Given Sunday) but as the film has three hundred percent more heart than that empty-headed football movie, all his thievery is forgiveable.

Rating:
Summary: Harlin and Stallone team up again...yippy!!!
Review: When one considers that in the last ten years Harlin and Stallone have either directed/acted in such films as Judge Dredd, Daylight, Assassins, Demolition Man, Get Carter, Cutthroat Island, Cliffhanger(cooperatively), and Deep Blue Sea, it's almost surprising this movie isn't worse than it is. It's bad, for sure, and if all goes well I will never see it again in my life, but I've seen worse.

But the very fact that I've seen worse did nothing to negate the way I felt after watching this film. And on that note I will attempt to review the film. Instead of creating an organized, developed review, I will simply cover some points I thought about as I watched the movie.

Although I know little about racing, I do know that you don't have to win every race of the season to be considered an excellent driver. In the film it seems that every time the rookie Bly fails to finish first in a race it's like he's really blown it for himself. And I do realize that Reynold's character is obsessed with winning, but seriously, even a second place season finish for a rookie in a major racing league would be a significant accomplishment. And like I've said already, I don't know much about racing, but I do know that Formula 1 cars have steering wheel mounted gear shifters. How Formula 1 differs or is related to CART I do not know, but I would be interested to find out. After all, I would think that a stick shift would provide more of a dramatic effect(probably has something to do with the fallic undertones).

Another thing about the movie that annoyed me was how predictable it was. I knew from the moment that Sylvestor's character met the reporter "Luke" that they would get something going between them...the very instant. Also, you know that one of the main characters is going to be injured or killed, and through the process of elimination it's not long before one realizes who it's going to be. Also, even though the racing season is 20 races long, you know that it's all going to come down to the last race, and in all probability, the very last moments of the last race. The movie doesn't fail in following these classic cleches.

There were also other problems I had with the movie. The night driving in the race cars through the city streets of "Chicago" was a joke, right? Aside from everything else that was wrong with that segment the one thing I kept thinking about was, "how can they see to drive with no helmets on". I mean, their eyes are going to dry out. The design of the car is probably going to deflect a certain amount of air away from the cockpit, but at near 200mph speeds, you're probably still going to need some sort of visor protecting your eyes. Also, I had to chuckle at the mid-race rescue of Memo. Talk about some seriously contrived bologna. Not to mention the pragmatic ridiculousness of it all. And as far as the between race drama goes, you could eliminate all of it and still not lose any emotional affect from the film. As for the races themselves...Harlin relies on choppy editing and pumped up music to convey excitement. The computer effects aren't terrible, but there are many instances when you are very, very aware that it's cgi your seeing.

Ultimately, this film substitutes cleches for character development and plot, has dialogue that is only adequate at its best moments, and rarely fulfills in its capacity as an action film. One thing I will give this film, though, is that it made me laugh out loud pretty hard once...when Stallone's character Tanto makes a flying leap to take first positon. I would like to say one final thing, in regards to Stallone. I am simply amazed at how much mileage he's gotten out of his Rocky and Rambo franchises.

Rating:
Summary: An Entertaining Film!
Review: I watched this movie on DVD without a whole lot of expectations when it was first available on DVD. I was surprised with how exciting this movie is. Fast cars, beautiful people, F-1 car chase scene, and a few more adrenaline-pumping scene! As far as the story line and character development, there is nothing much to be said here. Having said that, I never expect those qualities from a race car movie with Stallone anyhow. The sound quality is good. The deleted scenes with Stallone's commentary provides a nice touch. The actor's profile feature gave me some problem -- not being able to access all actor's bio. I don't know whether it was caused by my DVD player. Overall, it is a fun movie to watch with some nice extra features. It is worth renting. Buying is up to each individual.

Rating:
Summary: Fire the editor -- the DVD shows us what we missed
Review: I saw this movie both on the theater and when I purchased this DVD. The following is why you might be interested in this DVD if you skipped the movie after reading the reviews, or saw the movie and were disappointed by it.

My perspective on all this is that CART is arguably the best racing series in the world. I've been to the races, talked to the drivers, and know a lot about the sport on many levels. I was excited when I heard this movie was to be made. On the other side, I was scared that it would become another laughingstock like the racing community feels "Days of Thunder" was in terms of realistically depicting the sport. I also knew I was going to have to accept some "Hollywood" because most people don't understand enough about what goes on in CART to appreciate it at "full realism" setting. Thus the need to have cars knife through the competition on any patch of road that's open (the laws of physics be hanged).

The movie was very entertaining to me as a CART fan, and ignoring the cliches, the underdeveloped characters, the sometimes iffy acting, etc. The special effects were almost always well done, and enough real footage was used to provide the thrill ride you'd want.

My wife's take was ho hum because of the fact that the characters were not developed in spite of Sly's promises that this would be about the PEOPLE in the story as much as the racing.

The DVD confirms that Sly wasn't lying, it's just that the parts that made this a good character movie were left on the cutting room floor. Through several scenes that were either edited down or omitted entirely, several of the characters' backgrounds were fleshed out, allowing us to empathize with them more, often see better acting. After I was done watching the DVD and watched these omitted clips, I found myself ANGRY that a good movie was actually SHOT, it just wasn't RELEASED. If the people behind the movie and DVD version had any brains at all after reading the reviews they got, they would have done like Terminator 2 did and folded the edited/omitted scenes back into the picture, and actually FINISHED the film, knowing the DVD audience wouldn't mind seeing a movie longer than 2 hours. But since the theatrical release could never compete with T2 because of its flaws, I doubt we'll ever see a 'platinum release' of this DVD with that stuff back in. But it *IS* worthwhile to see if you want to see how the people in charge of cutting the movie to size can cut out its heart, leaving the special effects to carry the movie, which rarely happens anymore unless it's a Star Wars movie.

The Visual Effects documentary on the DVD is very interesting, in that although I quickly identified some CGI work in the movie, I was amazed at how much got past me. I swore I was looking at an actual car going around a corner from a camera behind it, and it turns out it was a CG car. They are just getting too darned good at this stuff!

The video transfer quality was on par with other DVD's, but the sensation of being in the car is definitely hurt by the small screen. (I have a 36" set, and of course this is letter boxed).

The audio (no dts here...another screw-up), hits the subwoofer pretty hard, enough that I checked a few times just to be sure that I had the "bass boost" turned off. Some people may need to lower that. I don't remember the theatrical release having that much bass, so maybe it's a bad mix (With Dolby Digital, anything is possible....).

Anyway, if they could have folded back in the missing footage as a viewing option, the actual movie would be a much better addition to the library, but for many, it will simply serve to answer unanswered character questions and demonstrate how a 4 star movie can get dropped to 1 or 2 stars on the cutting room floor.

I'll keep mine because it's still a CART movie and the Effects are still worth it (and yes, manhole covers DO really get sucked up by the underbody vacuum if not welded down).

Rating:
Summary: Probably this is the best film of Stallone
Review: Stallone is a formula driver and the film is about a group of formula drivers life.